DA investigating whether 3 Wichita officials should be ousted for cover-up conspiracy
Three Wichita Republican officeholders are under investigation to see if they can be ousted after a secret recording surfaced last week of the officials plotting to frame the county GOP chairman for a falsified smear video that the three organized.
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett announced the investigation Monday afternoon after a majority on the Sedgwick County Commission publicly called for Commissioner Michael O’Donnell to resign. O’Donnell is up for re-election Nov. 3.
The Sedgwick County Republican Party also has called on O’Donnell as well as the other two officials — Wichita City Council member James Clendenin and State Rep. Michael Capps — to resign. The Wichita Chamber of Commerce, an influential business organization that previously endorsed O’Donnell, called on the three men to resign Monday afternoon and for O’Donnell to withdraw from the commission race.
The three officials have not returned calls for comment.
Commission Chair Pete Meitzner is the only county commissioner who has not called for O’Donnell’s resignation. He said in an email that “we must respect everyone’s right to due process and let the case continue without Commission involvement.”
Meitzner stands as an outlier as several groups and the rest of the commission has publicly called for O’Donnell to step down.
“There is also an election about a week away that will decide commission representation; I encourage residents to take advantage of their civic duty and vote if they have not already done so,” Meitzner said. “And finally, as the Board of County Commissioners for Sedgwick County, the actions available to us on this matter are very limited and we are in consultation with our County Counselor. All five of us are uniquely elected by the people and do not have authority over one another.”
The secret recording released Friday showed that three Republican officials sought to frame the county’s Republican chairman for a falsified ad they put together smearing then-mayoral candidate Brandon Whipple. In the recording — about 50 minutes long — O’Donnell, Clendenin and Capps craft a calculated narrative meant to mislead the public and cover their tracks while saving their political careers.
Commissioners Lacey Cruse, David Dennis and Jim Howell all posted statements Sunday on Facebook calling for O’Donnell to step down.
Cruse, the commission’s lone Democratic official and O’Donnell’s primary foil, said early Sunday that she wanted a full investigation into whether any county resources had been used as part of the sham video campaign and the subsequent cover-up.
“First off, Michael O’Donnell has proven to be a risk and major liability to Sedgwick County and should not be in a position where he can make decisions on behalf of 500,000+ people,” Cruse wrote. “The Sedgwick County Commission is making million dollar decisions weekly. Michael O’Donnell should not have access to any information or financial decisions. Period. How can we trust him with information? We can’t. We all heard him say he would go into a court of law and lie. He has proven with his own words his lack of integrity and has clearly violated our ethical conduct.”
Dennis, who is also up for re-election, said he supports the District Attorney’s investigation and called for O’Donnell, Capps and Clendenin to resign.
“It is vital that citizens have trust in their elected officials, and the recording demonstrates a clear breach of honesty and the values that we as Commissioners swore to adhere to,” Dennis wrote Sunday.
Howell, who has often voted with O’Donnell against coronavirus pandemic restrictions, agreed with the other commissioners and the local party leadership.
“The people of Sedgwick County deserve representation that is ethical, above reproach, and honest,” he wrote. “The actions of these men in the ‘Protect Wichita Girls’ scandal is reprehensible and embarrassing to our community.”
Most of the Wichita City Council has been silent on the secret recordings, which were released Friday by video producer Matthew Colborn. However, Whipple said in a phone interview that the officials should do “some soul searching to decide whether the public can trust them enough to continue leading through a pandemic, given their dishonesty in the recording.”
It seems unlikely the general public will get to weigh in on the situation before Election Day.
The commission is scheduled to meet Wednesday, but county spokeswoman Kate Flavin said public comment won’t be allowed because the meeting was called as a special session for the sole purpose of getting an update on spending of federal coronavirus relief grants.
“If we allow public comment at this special meeting, it’d be inconsistent when we go back to normal and no comment’s allowed at special meetings,” Flavin said.
A staff meeting scheduled Tuesday was canceled by the county on Monday afternoon.
Howell said this is bad timing for voters. Thousands have already cast ballots and he said he’s heard from some voters telling him “they felt like they may have voted differently” if they’d known about Colborn’s recording.
He said the proximity of the revelations to the election could mean that O’Donnell could resign now but still reclaim his office were he to win the election.
He said it’s uncertain whether there’s a way to get a binding promise from O’Donnell that if he wins, would step down and let Republican precinct committee members select his replacement.
The Wichita Chamber, a business organization that frequently endorses Republican candidates, called the behavior “ugly and unacceptable” in a written statement Monday afternoon.
“The Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce and Wichita Regional Chamber Political Action Committee (PAC) condemn the actions of Michael Capps, James Clendenin, and Michael O’Donnell, relating to the production, release, and cover-up of a fabricated attack video. Due to the gravity of the situation and the lack of integrity and civility displayed, we ask them to step down from their roles and withdraw from any current races immediately.”
This story was originally published October 26, 2020 at 4:06 PM.
